Freeport Star Systems M/HC-6550 Snapdragon. (4k)

After the XiXi threat became serious in the 3800s, the many worlds of the Voidrunner Republic decided that they needed to revamp and modernize their aging fleet.

Several new vessels were designed and constructed at shipyards across VR space, but the unique circumstances of extreme isolation and distance between their key worlds meant that no matter how hard they tried, and no matter how much of their limited budget they spent.

They would never be able to compete with the shear industrial and military might of the Terran Alliance.

VR leadership had long since realized that the strong, moral framework and shared goals of the Terran Alliance were it's greatest strength, and wanted to try and emulate it within their own space.

Popular media within VR space began showing VRRN ships and officers out among the stars, working to better the intergalactic power they had built and fighting the XiXi. The idea of "If they Terrans can, we can too" became the mainstream sentiment across VR occupied worlds.

Even so, because of the vast reaches of empty space they inhabit, they would never have the shear numbers the Alliance had. Recruitment soared in the years following the first XiXi attacks on Terran vessels, but even so. They didn't have the numbers to build the vast, expeditionary armada of millions of vessels they had hoped for.

Terran vessels had seen, and continue to see great success in all forms of combat utilizing a large number of smaller destroyers, supported by several varieties of carriers and large numbers of starfighters, along with their capital ships.

This sort of tactic relies heavily on a large and complex logistical backbone that the VRRN simply could not match. There was simply no way they could supply and arm ships so far away.

Even with the use of the slingshot network, it would be nearly impossible for them to even keep a few small fleets supplied in a timely and efficient manner.

This caused disagreements amongst the military and political leadership which threatened to do the same thing that had been happening within the Voidrunner Republic for centuries. Fracture it and spiral it into civil war.

However, this time an agreement was made that all parties agreed too.

Gone would be the vast, unrealistic fleet of "millions" of starships with swarms of drones and starfighters.

Instead, they would focus their attention onto the threat they were facing. The XiXi attack in waves, from all directions, with seemingly little to no cohesion in their overall strategy.

The large number of XiXi ships had lead political leadership to the conclusion that to counter them, the VRRN must employ and equal numbers of different vessels with unique functions and purposes, all built in ways that help their constituency but harm the overall product.

The politicians wanted over 50 different kinds of vessel, from freighters and starfighters to light corvettes and heavy dreadnoughts.

The admiralty within the VRRN saw it very differently. They wanted, instead of trying to emulate the UESN, supplement what it doesn't have, or needs more of and work with it, rather than try to be it.

They wanted only 3 new vessels. First they wanted a new escort ship, a destroyer or corvette sized vessel outfit for anti-fighter defense.

Second, they wanted an arsenal bird, a large, simple vessel with a massive battery of VLS cells ands not much else, standardized to work with both Alliance and Voidrunner weaponry.

And third, a new light carrier to replace the aging Anubis-class. Something smaller and better designed for rapid deployment of multiple fighters. The idea of simply purchasing these from the Alliance was floated, as the Aarondale-class assault ship was basically exactly what the admiralty wanted. However this idea was ultimately shot down.

with these ships, the idea was to make the arsenal bird the capital ship of each small squadron, and deploy them with two light carriers and a small escort of their anti-fighter ships.

Not willing to let the potential revenue from so much ship construction go, the political leadership of several worlds forced a compromise. The three new recommended classes would be built.

They would also build two new shipyards to construct a new other types of vessel. The new freighter, designed to keep the ships supplied, and a class of electronic warfare and early warning vessel, similar to the Terran Sentinel.

The largest of these new ships, and the first to see combat alongside Terran forces was the M/HC-6550 Snapdragon. A guided-missile arsenal ship, officially designated as the Terminus-class heavy battlecruiser by the VRRN.

The M/HC-6550 comes equipped with 339, 8-cell Mk-77M3 VLS cells for a total of 2,712 indaviudal launch cells. Some of which can hold multiple missiles each depending on the type of missile used.

The Mk-77M3 was designed in partnership with the UESN and Starlite Armory to be compatible with the Terran standard STS-2000 VLS system. Meaning it can fire any missile in either the Voidrunner, or Alliance catalog.

The M/HC-6550 also has a large number of Kaber Arms DM-92 plasma-based point defense guns as well as a formidable, Whiskey-Three M7 electronic warfare and countermeasure suite which can jam enemy missiles and spoof their sensors into missing altogether.

The first ship built, and namesake of the class, the VRRN Terminus was launched to modest fanfare in the winter of 3875 and would complete her first star trials within a year.

By then, the XiXi threat had temporarily subsided but the crew of Terminus was eager to link up with the UESN 382nd Heavy Cruiser element, part of the 7th fleet. There she would patrol along the Terran-XiXi boarder for the next six months with little to no events of interest taking place.

It's often stated that the most exciting thing that happened during that time was when the mail arrived. The ship performed well overall in this time. It's brand new RM-950 engines were untested, but appeared quite reliable.

The ship wasn't the fastest thing flying, but it was more than capable of staying with the Terran fleet during their jumps between stars and galaxies. It's over-sized focusing deflectors did give it the advantage of being able to maintain FTL longer than some of the older Terran warships. And even though this wasn't much, it was something the crew took great pride in.

Then, suddenly, one day everything changed in an instant. Terran ships escorting a Mi'arr evacuation ship had come under fire, and they were out-numbered 1000-1.

Terminus, along with two of it's escorts and three Terran destroyers were ordered to break from formation and remain in an ambush position at the edge of the star system while the larger Terran force tried to funnel them towards them.

Soon, XiXi ships began converging on Terminus and it's small contingent of escorts as they tried to escape the onslaught of Terran warships. There were hundreds fleeting at low warp of extremely high sub light velocities.

The captain ordered his men to open fire as missile after missile poured from the ship in a seemingly endless stream. Even Terran heavy cruisers didn't carry this many launchers, another fact the crew took pride in.

One after another, not only did the XiXi ships fall, but their almost inevitable, fluid-like approach was totally halted. When the smoke cleared, over 12,000 XiXi ships had engaged just 200 Terran, 30 Mi'arr, and eight Voidrunner ships.

One Terran heavy cruiser suffered severe damaged to one of it's engines and had a Mk-8 naval gun torn clean off. A Mi'arr frigate was lost, and two Terran corvettes had to be abandon but were later recovered and repaired.

197 Alliance personnel and around 100,000 civilians lost their lives before the combined force engaged. The commander of the 382nd commended the crew of Terminus, stating publicly that they had started to exhaust their own VLS cells, and without the Voidrunner arsenal bird firing over 3,000 missiles in a matter of minutes, they would have lost tens of thousands more lives than they did.

Terminus would be restocked with fresh missiles in-theater thanks to their new class of resupply freighters and remain with the 382nd for the next three years until being struck by a Terran anti-ship missile launched during a raid on a known pirate group in a blue-on-blue incident. The crew suffered only minor injuries, but the ship was severely damaged, loosing two of her three engines in the accidental attack.

She was towed back to her home port and repaired, however by this time more refined versions of the design had already started to deploy that iron out some of the issues Terminus had.

Due to this, and the fact the damage she sustained compromised her internal structure, Terminus was deemed unfit for frontline service and repurposed as a PR vessel, traveling around VR space and drumming up support for the VRRN and the supercluster-wide fight against the XiXi.

As of the 45th century, The Terminus-class is still the primary capital ship of the VRRN and almost always a welcome sight amongst their Terran counterparts as they both serve to defend the fleet from incoming missile attacks., as well as provide a massive bump in overall strike capacity.

The UESN actually has tried on several occasions to acquire their own fleet of M/HC-6550s, but the Voidrunner Republic will only sell them, if the Alliance will sell the F-6A and AIM-299. Which the Alliance has outwardly refused to do.

As of 4447, around 15,000 of these ships have been built and fielded.